Moonlight(Pact Arcanum 3)

by Arshad Ahsanuddin

She growled at him, her eyes blazing red. “You will release my hands. Now.”

  Toby held on with an iron grip, his strength enhanced by his Gift. “Not until you tell me what I want to know.”

  Layla twisted her wrists suddenly, breaking his hold, and slapped his face hard enough to make his ears ring. As his head snapped around from the blow, she stood from her chair and glared down at him. “If you must know, I took it off one of my enemies. Antonio Martinez was his name, the Wind of Fire of the generation prior to yours. It made him a difficult man to capture.”

  Toby scowled at her as he massaged his throbbing cheek. “You fucking bitch. Is this the same Antonio Martinez that you forced to betray Rory and then killed when he was of no further use to you?”

  Layla hissed at him, her fangs showing. She contained her anger with obvious difficulty and just barely resisted lashing out at him again. “Spare me your sanctimony, Tobias. I acquired a powerful artifact made by a master spellcaster. Should I have wasted his skill and allowed it to be buried with him?”

  Toby shot to his feet. “You wasted his skill when you stopped his damn heart!” He clawed at the gold chain, but it resisted his efforts to break it.

  “Don’t bother,” she said spitefully. “I made the chain myself. It won’t come off, and the links won’t break. You will be quite well protected until the day you die, although I find it difficult to remember why I bothered.”

  “And I’m just supposed take this lying down?” he shouted. “What else did you charm into this thing?”

  “How dare you?” she said, practically spitting in rage. “I wanted something to keep you safe while you travel in Court territory to protect this fool child. The Winds have always been targets. If Nicholas is stupid enough to risk your life for her sake, then surely I have the right to give you a fighting chance!”

  “Bullshit. You’re just trying to fucking control me,” Toby said hotly. “If you had even a shred of empathy, you wouldn’t have had to trick me into putting it on.”

  She lifted her hand to slap him again, but he dodged and raised his mystical defenses as he began casting a spell. She raised her defenses, as well, and then attacked.

  Twenty minutes later, they both stood seething in the remains of the apartment’s living room. Destroyed furniture and pulverized plaster from the damaged interior walls littered the floor. The security system had activated automatically when combat magic was detected, and the green defense field reinforcing the perimeter walls was the only thing that had prevented the fight from spilling over into the neighboring apartments.

  “No one offers me insult and walks away, Tobias Primogenitor Luscian,” she said in a cold voice.

  “Well, you know where to find me.” He crossed his arms. “Just let me know when you want to do this again.”

  She glared at him, gathered her will, and then teleported away.

  Toby sagged on his feet and looked wearily around at his devastated home. Crap. It’s lucky we were both holding back, or we might have brought the building down. “Strings,” he said, “please ask my brother if he wouldn’t mind a houseguest. This is going to take a while to clean up.”

  FIRE AND WRATH

  CHAPTER 3

  The White House, Washington, D.C.; One week later

  Alexander Collins, the Vice President of the United States, marched into Kevin Daniels’ private office after a perfunctory knock. He was short but powerfully built, and his arrogant bearing made him seem like a lion dressed in a gray suit. Daniels looked up at the intrusion and frowned. They had been allies on the ticket in the beginning, but their interests had diverged after Los Angeles, when the supernatural world had exploded into the light. He had no doubt that Collins was somehow involved with the movement to delegitimize the Armistice, that the preparations would have required the support of one of the moderators of the Senate, but he didn’t have enough evidence to actually make an accusation.

  “What do you want, Alex?”

  Collins planted his feet on the other side of the President’s desk. “I’m told you’ve employed a rogue Sentinel on your daughter’s protection detail.”

  Daniels carelessly tossed the file he’d been reading on the desk. He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Yes, I did. He didn’t ask to become a Sentinel, so why should I penalize him for his ancestry?”

  Collins rolled his eyes. “That’s very egalitarian of you. So what’s the real reason?”

  “What makes you think there’s another reason?” Daniels asked with a scowl.

  “You interfered in the internal workings of the Secret Service to have him reinstated, and you ordered for him to be designated specifically as your daughter’s bodyguard. There’s already been political fallout in the ranks from your blatant favoritism toward a metahuman, not to mention the obvious conflict of interest between his loyalties to us and to the Armistice. There’s something underhanded going on here, and you’re willing to take the flak for your own reasons.” Collins leaned forward to rest his hands on the desk and glared at the President. “Exactly what do you and Jameson have cooking?”

  Daniels shrugged. “I don’t see what business it is of yours.”

  Collins sat in one of the other chairs without any further invitation. “You might be happy enough to be labeled an Armistice sympathizer at the end of your career, but I still have aspirations left, and I have no intention of letting you torpedo my re-election because of your misplaced trust in those freaks. Now tell me why you brought one of them in.”

  Daniels smiled. “Not a chance.”

  Collins ground his teeth together, apparently to keep from shouting. “I’m going to find out, Kevin. Sooner or later, I’m going to put the pieces together. And when I do, we’re not going to be chatting about it in your office. Either you tell me what I want to know privately, or I’ll go right to the press as soon as I discover what you’re up to.” He leaned forward to fix Daniels with the intensity of his expression. “We can still be allies, Mr. President, but you have to trust me.”

  Daniels weighed the pros and cons in his mind. True, Alex would be a valuable ally to have in my corner, but can his loyalties be trusted when the chips are down? Probably not. However, if Collins followed through on his threat to find out Andrea’s condition, revealing it to the world would destroy any chance she’d have at a human life, not to mention sever the bond of trust between father and daughter. In the end, it comes down to one simple question: Do I think he has the skill and tenacity to ferret out the truth?

  There were any number of ways the Vice President could identify Andrea as a Sentinel, from using their intelligence services’ advancing knowledge of Sentinel physiology to employing Sentinel or vampire agents to test her. Can I be sure she’ll be safe if I don’t bring him into my confidence? No, not really. Either I trust the one man, or I’ll have to rely on the discretion of the whole army of men that he will throw at the problem. “All right, Alex,” he said finally. “I’ll fill you in, but if you endanger my daughter in any way, I swear that I will have you killed. Are we clear on that?”

  Collins drummed his fingers on the desk. “Crystal.”

  Daniels laid his hands back down on the desk and ordered his thoughts. “Andrea is a latent Sentinel.”

  Collins whistled in surprise. “Jesus. No wonder she’s been all pissed off lately.”

  “No, that’s just Andrea being herself. She doesn’t know yet.”

  “Then how do you know?”

  Daniels exhaled a deep breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Nick felt the Gift when he shook her hand at the wake. He wanted me to keep her in the country to make sure she’s safe, but I wouldn’t take that freedom away from her. So we compromised, with him offering extra protection in case the Court of Shadows catches wind of what she is and tries to eliminate her.”

  Collins’ eyes narrowed. “So she’s a latent Sentinel. Lots of people are. The Court doesn’t bother to kill latents. There’s just too many of them. Not to mention the fact that sh
e’s your daughter—her death at the hands of a Nightwalker would galvanize the entire country against them. There’s something more, isn’t there?”

  Daniels sighed. “She’s the Wind of Air.”

  Collins stared at him. “And knowing that, you sent her back into Court territory?”

  “I can’t make her a prisoner. She’s safe as long as no one knows. I couldn’t have pulled her out of school without an explanation, and she would have demanded a reason.”

  “You could have come up with a pretext.”

  “If I lie to her, she’ll never forgive me when she eventually finds out.” He sighed again. “And she will find out. It’s inevitable. I just need to buy a little time for her anger over Catherine’s death to cool off, and then I’ll tell her. She’ll see reason then, I hope.”

  Collins shook his head slowly in disbelief. “Kevin, you’re gambling with your daughter’s life. Are you really that cold-blooded?”

  Daniels scowled at him. “My career already cost her a normal childhood. Should I take her youth, as well? She’s almost done with the school year. Once she finishes, I’ll give her the facts and let her make her own decision. That’s all I can give her—a few more months of being human before her life implodes. Until then, this is the best way I can think of to protect her.”

  “This is going to end badly,” Collins said. “You know that, don’t you?”

  Daniels picked up the file he had discarded and opened it again. “If it does, I’ll know exactly who to come looking for when it’s time for payback. Now keep your mouth shut and get the hell out of my office.”

  Armistice Embassy, Washington, D.C.

  Layla looked up when she heard a musical tone from her office door, followed by the voice of the security AI. “Sean Magister Jiao-long is requesting entry.”

  She turned away from the window. “Let him in.”

  “Order rejected. Adjust environmental controls to allow safe entry.”

  Layla blinked in confusion and then realized the windows were open and bright sunlight streamed into the room. Foolish woman. You’re so distracted that you would have let him walk into a deathtrap. “Activate flare shielding, then let him in.”

  An iridescent shield of force blocked the sunlight over the windows. Then the door opened, and two men walked in. They were a study in contrasts. Rory, his age frozen in his late twenties, had his long red hair tied back into a ponytail, eyes intent as they took in the scene, dressed in a black short-sleeved shirt and black jeans. Takeshi wore his five decades of life with quiet dignity, his spiky, black hair cut short without any hint of gray. He calmly absorbed everything and gave away none of his own thoughts to the casual observer. To the trained eye, however, there was no mistaking the bond between them as they moved forward in unison, each unconsciously guiding his steps to allow the other the widest view of the room and all lines of attack. Layla had been a student of the Sentinel Gift for millennia, and she knew how deadly the psychically linked warriors could be on the battlefield, notwithstanding the additional powers that Rory had acquired when he was corrupted into a Nightwalker.

  Together, the three of them had built an empire that spanned the entire continent in the shadow of human civilization, and they had only recently drawn back from ruling it to give up a measure of control to Nick as President. They remained the leaders of the Free People, however, and set policy throughout the Armistice.

  Layla sat up straight on the couch, and her visitors pulled chairs away from the conference table to sit in front of her. “Gentlemen,” she asked, “what brings you to Washington?”

  Rory smiled at her. “We heard you were terrorizing your staff, so we decided to stop by to see if there was anything we could do to smooth things over.”

  Take watched her carefully. “Nick told us you broke up with Toby.”

  She frowned at him. “And you came to console me? Or did you just want to catch up on the latest gossip?”

  “A bit of both, really,” said Rory, completely at ease in the face of her annoyance. “The two of you have been on quite a roller coaster in your relationship. It’s not the first time things between you have deteriorated into violence.”

  She sighed, conceding the point. “Tobias is a passionate man. He lets his emotions get the better of him on occasion.”

  “But the same can’t be said of you, Layla,” said Takeshi. “At least, not until you started seeing Toby.”

  “I have not changed,” she declared flatly.

  “Actually, you have,” Rory replied. “Your personality has always been sharp as a blade, but since the two of you began seeing each other, there’s been some softening of the hard edges.”

  She snorted in derision. “Then it was for the best that we broke it off.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Rory said. “In a lot of ways, you complemented each other’s strengths. You might have had your problems, but on the whole, you were good together. It would be a shame to let it all go to waste over one argument, no matter how destructive.”

  She looked at him with casual arrogance. “Do you know why we were arguing?”

  “No,” answered Rory with undisguised curiosity. “Nick didn’t give us the details.”

  “I gave him a protective charm that I stole from Antonio on the night I forced him to betray you.”

  Rory’s brows shot up in disbelief.

  Takeshi shook his head slowly. “That was kind of obnoxious, Layla. You’re more astute than that. How did you think he would react?”

  She flashed her fangs at him. “We were at war, and Antonio was a powerful enemy. I was within my rights to take a trophy of my victory. The fact that I found a use for it is beside the point.”

  Rory refocused on the conversation. “It was a different time, I suppose. Toby opened his eyes after the Armistice, so he doesn’t know how brutal things were back then. Still, giving him a token you took off a dead Sentinel doesn’t exactly strike me as a smart move, Layla. You’re usually more subtle.”

  She looked out the darkened window, her enhanced sight picking out the street scene in the infrared. “I was probably foolish to give him such an emotionally charged gift without explanation. At the time, I just wanted to make sure of his safety.” She looked back and saw both of them staring at her face with identical expressions of shock. Reaching up to touch her cheek, she felt the single tear that they had seen and quickly brushed it away. “I have not met anyone so infuriating in millennia.”

  Takeshi, ever prepared, reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. He offered it to her wordlessly.

  She took it from his hand and wiped at her face. “Forgive me. Of late, my mood has been overly volatile when I think of him. It is most distressing. I could not control my rage when we quarreled. I should not have let his offense provoke me.”

  “Perhaps you’re just feeling vulnerable,” Take said, trying to be diplomatic. “How long has it been since you tried to form an equal partnership with someone else?”

  She snorted. “It has been centuries, if ever.”

  “I don’t think that’s the reason, Take,” Rory said quietly.

  They both looked at him in surprise.

  “Layla, I can read your emotions clearly, and I can tell you two things right off the bat. First, you’re in a lot more emotional turmoil than you’re even aware of, and second, if you’re letting your shields slip this much, then you’re more distracted than I’ve ever seen.” He leaned forward intently. “Have you considered the possibility that your mind is being tampered with?”

  Layla looked at him thoughtfully, her emotions brought ruthlessly under control as she focused her mind on the memories of the last several weeks with razor-sharp clarity. Could it be? It doesn’t seem plausible on the surface, but I would never have been taken in by a more overt confrontation. Her anger threatened to boil over as she noticed an extended pattern of erratic behavior, but she brutally restrained her bloodlust. Patience. If this is the work of an enemy, it shows uncommon subtlety.
This prey will be difficult to chase down. “It would certainly be a more palatable explanation than that I am simply overwrought over a mortal.”

  Takeshi looked back and forth between them. “If you really suspect something sinister, then we can always get Jeremy to examine you. He’s supposed to be arriving back at the Citadel this evening.”

  Layla nodded, already making battle plans. She allowed herself a single moment of personal reflection as she mentally prepared herself for the hunt. Perhaps there was something to your words after all, Tobias, and I truly was trying to control you. When this is over, I might even apologize.

  Then she put Toby out of her mind and focused on the problem at hand.

  CHAPTER 4

  Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia; That night

  Collins paced impatiently back and forth in front of the Kennedy marker. Where the hell is she? He had to move fast to use the leverage he had before the aching mass in his left lung finally killed him. Damn cigarettes. He’d always meant to quit, but now it was too late. He broke off his internal recriminations when he heard a soft noise behind him. He saw her leaning calmly against a grave marker in a black dress that clung seductively to the curves of her body, shapely even in the moonlight. She looked beautiful but deadly, and it would be a mistake to think of her as anything other than a lethal predator: Yvette Primogenitor Daviroquir, the Court of Shadows Ambassador to the Triumvirate.

  “It’s about time you got here. I’ve been waiting for half an hour.”

  She shrugged nonchalantly. “I had a meeting with the Imperator. He takes precedence over you.” She smiled, showing her fangs. “Unless you would rather that I told him why I needed to leave early. I’m sure Lorcan would be most interested in our plans for the Armistice.”

  Collins shivered. “No, of course not.” He paused, licking his lips nervously. “I want to move up the timetable.”

  She watched him impassively. “For what reason?”

  “I found out some information that will prove that Daniels is unfairly biased toward the Armistice. It might bring down his administration, and if it does, then I need to position myself to retain my career after he goes down. The vote against the Armistice will be key in that respect, so I need to have it in my pocket before I go public with the intelligence.”